Has anyone built an Ironworker from scratch? I’m thinking 50-ton minimum. I have a bunch of heavy structural steal so that would keep the cost down. Another option I was thinking about was making a scaled down unit that would fit in a 75-ton press (motor driven pump). A little advice would be appreciated

The ironworkers I've been around were built of heavy Plate. The structure has to be significantly stronger (actually designing for stiffness here) than the press tonnage at hand.

Also there are very large pins/bushings for the pivot points. Attention must be paid on how the load is transferred to the punch & dies without side-loading or misaligning them.

I think it could be done, I have seen smaller mobile punching stations built that are rolled on-site for the lighter end of structural steel fabrication.

Thinking hydraulics you'll have money in a pump, motor, reservoir, control valve(s), cylinder, and lines. Depending on what you can scrounge will pay a large part in the end cost. I am not sure if you can have enough motor/flow at high pressure to help speed things up.

Taking careful sizing notes on an existing design is probably the best bet, followed by a chest of cash. IMHO it's not as easy as it seems at first.

2 ideas, shop for a good used unit. or if youhave the room, use a series of punch presses which can be had practically free these days. depending on your work load and versitility needed you can either set up one each for shearing, punching, angle shear, etc. or set up one with easy slide on dies, I did this. One advantage of a mechanical press is that is is very fast. In hydralics speed = $, the faster the press the more expensive the pump set up. a fast pump can be 10 times the cost of a slow pump. I know some iron workers are slow as sin for this reason.

I built my first ironworker about 6 years ago, using mostly 10"channel for the main frame,(It was what I had a lot of, and wanted to see how well it would work before I spent big bucks!) and 2" plate for the upper and lower blade mounts It has a 50" capacity, will shear up to 1/2" mild steel, also has a punch station, capacity 1" hole in 3/4" mild steel. Uses a single 5"x 18" hydraulic cylinder and a 2 stage pump on a 2hp motor. All the later ones I have built I have used 1" plate for the frame and still 2" for the blade mounts.

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